Outgoing Attorney General William Barr said on Monday that he sees “no reason” to appoint a special counsel on the tax investigation into Hunter Biden, President-elect Joe Biden's son, nor does he intend to appoint a special counsel to investigate potential election fraud, breaking with President Donald Trump.

What You Need To Know

  • Outgoing AG Barr broke with President Trump on a number of topics at his final press conference Monday, in which he announced new charges in the bombing of Pan Am 103

  • Barr said he sees "no reason" to appoint a special counsel on the tax investigation into Hunter Biden

  • He also added that he sees "no basis now for seizing machines by the federal government"

  • Barr also refuted Trump's account of the SolarWinds hack, agreeing with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo: "It certainly appears to be the Russians"

Barr made these remarks at his final press conference, where he also announced new charges in the bombing of Pan Am 103, which killed 270 people in 1988; in 1991, Barr unveiled the first charges during his first stint as Attorney General.

“I have not seen a reason to appoint a special counsel and I have no plan to do so before I leave,” Barr said, noting that the investigation into Hunter Biden's financial dealings was “being handled responsibly and professionally.”

"I think to the extent that there is an investigation, I think that it's being handled responsibly and professionally, currently within the department," Barr said in full. "And to this point, I have not seen a reason to appoint special counsel. And I have no plan to do so before I leave."

Barr also added that he sees "no basis now for seizing machines by the federal government," following a report from the New York Times about a meeting at the White House that took place Friday where, among other things, executive action to take control of voting machines to inspect them was discussed.

"If I thought a special counsel at this stage was the right tool and was inappropriate, I would name one," Barr said. "But I haven't and I'm not going to."

Barr also told The Associated Press in a previous interview that he had seen no evidence of widespread voting fraud, despite Trump’s claims to the contrary. Trump has continued to push baseless claims even after the Electoral College formalized Biden’s victory on Dec. 14.

Trump — angry that Barr didn’t publicly announce the ongoing, two-year investigation into Hunter Biden — has consulted on special counsels with White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, White House counsel Pat Cipollone and outside allies, according to several Trump administration officials and Republicans close to the White House who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss private matters.

Beyond appointing a special prosecutor to investigate the younger Biden, the sources said Trump was interested in having another special counsel appointed to look into his own baseless claims of election fraud. Trump has even floated the idea of naming attorney Sidney Powell as the counsel on election fraud — though Powell was booted from Trump’s legal team after she made a series of increasingly wild conspiratorial claims about the election.

Naming a special counsel would make it harder for Biden to shut down investigations. But it’s not clear how it could be done without buy-in from Justice officials. And if Trump was expecting his newly named acting attorney general, Jeff Rosen, to go further than Barr on either matter, he could end up quickly disappointed.

Barr also refuted Trump's account of the SolarWinds hack, agreeing with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo: "From the information that I have, I agree with Secretary Pompeo's assessment. It certainly appears to be the Russians, but I'm not going to discuss it beyond that."

Hours after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a radio interview that Russia was “pretty clearly” behind the hacks, Trump sought to undercut that message — and downplay the severity — by tweeting that the “Cyber Hack is far greater in the Fake News Media than in actuality.” He also said China could be responsible even though no credible evidence has emerged to suggest anyone other than Russia might be to blame.

Barr said the hack of U.S. government agencies “certainly appears to be the Russians.”

In implicating the Russians, Barr was siding with the widely held belief within the U.S. government and the cybersecurity community that Russian hackers were responsible for breaches that have affected multiple government agencies, including the Treasury and Commerce departments.

Naming a special counsel would make it harder for Biden to shut down investigations. But it’s not clear how it could be done without buy-in from Justice officials. And if Trump was expecting his newly named acting attorney general, Jeff Rosen, to go further than Barr on either matter, he could end up quickly disappointed.

Barr will be leaving his role as attorney general in two days.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.